Reviews

BACKLINE SALEM TOWN Mountain Fever MFR 190900 Salem Town is Backline’s third release since the band formed in 2016 and their first for Mountain Fever. The South Carolina band not only continues to display their skills as a tight band, but this release again features a number of original songs from lead vocalist Katelyn Mabry Ingardia….

BREAKING GRASS COLD Mountain Fever MFR190621 This new project from Mississippi’s Breaking Grass features the songwriting of guitarist Cody Farrar. He’s joined by band members Britt Sheffield (bass), Jody Elmore (banjo, guitar), Tyler White (fiddle), and Zach Wooten (mandolin). Many of Farrar’s songs have a dark theme, and the album’s cover gives an idea of…

MIKE KLEIN OVER THE WAVES No Label No Number Klein is a mandolin picker from Canada. Fellow Canadian Andrew Collins produced this recording and appears on the title-cut under its original name “Sobre Las Olas.” Paul Gitlitz plays fiddle, Ryan Shotton guitar, Jille Shotton is on banjo and does some flatfooting, and Nicola Tabb plays…

ROGER WILLIAMS I KNOW THIS ROAD Happy Appy Records HAR-12 Roger Williams is the dean of New England resonator guitar players. Fifty-six years after he began playing, Williams now offers up a solo album. Solo, but hardly alone, since he leads a top-notch band including esteemed veterans Ray Legere on fiddle, bandmate Amy Gallatin singing…

OLD SALT UNION WHERE THE DOGS DON’T BITE Compass Records 747412 Like a lot of new young bands, Old Salt Union is trying to carve out a distinctive territory of its own to be heard among the traditional, progressive, and jamgrass scenes. I’m happy to say that, based on the recorded evidence of their second…

MAC MARTIN & THE DIXIE TRAVELERS LIVE AT WALSH’S LOUNGE, 1971 & 1972 No Label No Number    Now let us praise great regional bluegrass performers of the 1960s, ’70s, and beyond—starting with Mac Martin & the Dixie Travelers. Mac was among the talented performers directly inspired by Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers,…